ON September 1, 2021, the Delhi High Court sought the government’s stand on a petition challenging the vacancy in the post of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha since the constitution of the 17th Lok Sabha in June 2019. According to the petitioner, Pawan Reley, keeping the post of Deputy Speaker vacant for the past 830 days was a violation of Article 93 of the Constitution of India. It has been argued that the absence of the Deputy Speaker was felt when Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, contracted Covid-19 during the Budget Session, 2021. The Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha K Suresh said that by convention the post of Deputy Speaker went to the Opposition.
On September 10, 2020, Birla had made an intriguing statement regarding the post of Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha. He had said that if there was a provision for the post of Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha, then it was only obvious that there should be one, but it was not the Speaker’s job to appoint one, and that the Deputy Speaker was chosen by the House. He was responding to a demand of the Opposition, particularly the Congress party, to fill the post of Deputy Speaker. Earlier on September 9, 2020, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, had written a letter to the Speaker requesting him to put in motion the process of election of the Deputy Speaker, while inviting attention to the convention of offering the post to the Opposition.
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